Thursday

EXETER – From a distance, Station Landing Properties, entailing the campus of the former Alrose Shoe Company, looks like the industrial space hasn’t changed much since closing some 30 years ago.

However, upon stepping inside, the shoe factory has been transformed into a new epicenter of a burgeoning hyper-local art scene, now called Exeter Station Studios.

The former Alrose Shoe Company property at 1 Rockingham St. is now home to 20 tenants, roughly 15 being local artists, in addition to several small businesses. Just before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the property owners completed refurbishing the second floor.

Dani Wason, of Stratham, is a professional potter and was the first artist to rent a space in the factory about a year and a half ago. She said before the pandemic hit, she had been able to work with other artists renting space, such as a glassblower, to work on collaborative pieces.

“There’s a creative vibe here and it’s an industrial space so we can do what we want with it,” said Wason, whose work can be found at DaniLeePottery.com. “Everyone pops in and they say they never realized all this space was back here and they think it’s awesome. Hopefully, we can become like Portsmouth’s Button Factory.”

The vision for the artist space came from developers David Cowie, one of the new owners of the Ioka, and his business partner in the Alrose venture, Alan Mason. In 2013, the business partners purchased the Alrose Shoe building at a bank foreclosure auction, and Cowie said at the time the property was a leaking eyesore in a state of disrepair and, “ready for the bulldozers.”

Mason said after he was able to set up his own machine shop in one unit of the building, he and Cowie began fielding interest from local artists about converting some of the units into studio space.

“(Artist studios) weren’t our original idea, this was a perfect fit for my machine shop,” Mason said. “Once people started asking, we went in a new direction. Our goal is to get more of the local artists in here to support them.”

Alrose Shoe Company was established in 1943, deriving its name from its first owners Alec Cohen and his wife, Rose, according to the Exeter Historical Society. At the time leather was being rationed due to World War II and Alrose made women’s shoes out of material, such as vinyl, before adding a line of dress shoes.

After the war, Alec Cohen was joined by his two sons, Irving and Herbert, in running the factory. The firm soon began making tap dancing shoes in 1948 and later a strap dancing shoe, according to the Exeter Historical Society. By the 1960s, Alrose had become one of the largest manufacturers of dancing shoes in the world, at a rate of more than 3,000 pairs a day.

The company was active through the mid-1980s, eventually shipping products to 25 distributors in the United States, plus Canada, Great Britain, Holland and Australia.

Scott Ruffner, Realtor at the factory, said through his connections in the local art scene as executive director of TEAM, (Town Exeter Arts Music), artists soon took interest in leasing spaces. Ruffner said all of the units are somewhat customizable in terms of subdividing larger units and artists are given some leeway to build their space as they see fit.

“Exeter is a new emerging town for artists and other types of creative makers,” Ruffner said. “The spaces have been out there for a while, but they had some trouble catching buzz within the arts community.”

Ruffner said rent prices typically range between $275 and $400 per month and the relatively low cost for a prime maker space is attracting local Exeter artists.

Ruffner said the tenants were ready to host their first open studio event for the public, similar to the annual open house at the Portsmouth Button Factory before the holidays but the pandemic hit, and the event was canceled. Ruffner said the number of new tenants renting spaces has stymied due to the pandemic, and there are currently eight or nine spaces still available.

“It really gives the people of Exeter; younger artists starting out, retirees, the flexibility to have a workspace,” Ruffner said. “Prior to that, artists were renting commercial space and the rent prices were so high they would have three, four people sharing one rental. It’s a nice cross-section of people, and once we’re passed the pandemic, we’ll start to fill up to make it a more organized community of artists.”

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